What is Sin?

Sin is disobedience to God’s commandments

God gave Adam a commandment, which Adam broke. God also gave us the Ten Commandments which help us to know what is right and wrong in God’s eyes. God’s commandments show us what sin is, for example, murdering someone or committing adultery are sins.

God’s commandments are sometimes called laws. Just like our laws, God’s laws help us to know when something is not good. For example, when a speed limit sign is posted, we know what speed is acceptable and what is not. When I go above the posted speed, I am breaking the law. Similarly, when I do not follow God’s signposts (the Commandments), I am breaking the law or sinning. This is one way of understanding sin – disobeying God’s laws.

Sin is “missing the mark”

Another understanding of sin comes from the Greek word for sin used in the New Testament: “hamartia”. This is translated as “missing the mark.” Sin is being off target, moving in the wrong direction, heading for the wrong goal. But what is this goal?

We have already seen that the goal of human life is life in communion with God. God is the source of our life. This means that anything we do (or anything we fail to do) that breaks our communion with God is sinful. In this way, sin is not just “breaking the rules,” but rather sin is not living up to who we are: people made in God’s image and likeness.

Again, we can compare this to driving. Driving while eating, or putting on makeup or shaving are not in themselves against the law. However, when I do these things while I am driving, I am not the best possible driver I can be. I am distracted and unfocussed, and I could end up in an accident or even worse, even though I haven’t broken any law.

Like being a good driver, being fully human (as we have defined it above) doesn’t simply involve breaking or not breaking the law. Being human, created in God’s image and likeness, means that I should live in a way that reflects this great dignity. I need to make choices that affirm that I am God’s presence for the world, choices that deepen my communion with God and with others. When I fail to do this, I am sinning because I am not living up to who I am. I am not fully living as a child of God.

Sin brings death, because it cuts us off from the Source of Life.

The goal of human life is communion with God. Human beings are created for this purpose. Being in communion with God is life-giving. However, when we opt out of communion with God, a communion with Life, we, by default, choose its opposite, that is death. Therefore, death is a natural consequence of sin. Sin is deadly because it is an attempt to exist apart from God, the Source of Life.

There is no life apart from God. When we sin we destroy ourselves because we are not true to who we are – children of God. When we sin, as did our first parents, we cut ourselves off from the Source of Life, God, and we die.

Death is not natural for us. Death is not a part of God’s hope for humanity. We were created to become immortal - like God:

For God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world. 8

With the first sin, death entered the world and became our enemy. Adam and Eve became mortal, and we have inherited their mortality. Instead of flowing naturally from their relationship with God, life became a struggle: it became difficult for Eve to bear children, Adam had to work hard to provide food. The relationship between Adam and Eve became not one of love and equality, but one of domination and subordination.

Sin does not erase the image of God in us, but it does damage it. In this way, sin is like a disease that affects the image. If we think of image as being a mirror that reflects the source of the image, sin would be the dirt and grime that gets on the mirror making the reflection (image) unclear and foggy.

Original Sin

The term “original sin” refers to the first sin committed by Adam and Eve (that is, “the Fall”). We have all been affected by this sin: “Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants, human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness … “ 9

In the history of the Church, there existed the idea that we are all guilty for Adam and Eve’s sin, before we are even born, and that we all would be punished by God in Hell for this sin if we were not baptized. This idea resulted from a bad translation of the New Testament into Latin from its original Greek, and an interpretation based on this bad translation.

In the tradition of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which is based on that of the Eastern Church Fathers who were Greek and used the original Greek version of the New Testament, the idea of “original guilt” never developed. Instead of inheriting guilt or punishment due from Adam and Eve, we inherit mortality. We are mortal from the moment we are born, and we fear death. We sin because we struggle to preserve our own lives, often at the expense of others. Life becomes a competition – a survival of the fittest.

“As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers; subject to ignorance, suffering, and the domination of death; and inclined to sin …” 10

Good News!
Repentance:Sin and Death are not the end!

”Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”
(Psalm 51:1-2)

Even though we have a tendency to fall into sin, we are called to overcome our self-serving tendencies and to be life-giving.

God desires our repentance for wrong doing and He offers His forgiveness. For us to accept His forgiveness we must admit our error, make amends for our wrongdoing, and strive not to sin again.

With this forgiving grace of God we can overcome our self preserving tendencies and become like our Creator who is Life-giving.

Our turning away from our selfish acts and towards God and others is called metanoia.

Original Sin

Good News! Repentance:Sin and Death are not the end!

Good News!
Repentance:Sin and Death are not the end!